Looking GLAM!

Zoila and I went to a Mary Kay party. It was fun. We put on a lot of makeup and complimented one another. Good day. But I could not wait to get home a wash all that stuff off. Made my face itch and you know I don't like to touch my face anyway. I did buy some perfume, so it wasn't a total waste of time to go. And Reyna was happy that her first Mary Kay party was a success. 

She is a cutie

Ana is such a cutie for 2 reasons.
1. She is a doll.
2. She is generosa (I asked for a piece of her candy and she gave it to me!- you don't find many kids that will do that) 

ATL Aquarium

So last weekend, I went to the aquarium in Atlanta. It made me reminiscent for Charleston aquarium. It was okay. I was a little miffed that there was no rate for students. I had my college ID all ready. But all in all, we had a good time. The piranahs were the freakiest(top far right). So still, as if they were waiting for something to fall in the water so they could tear it apart. And the jellyfish were mesmerizing. They look too delicate to be so hurtful (their tentacles sting, if you did not know). 

Learning Italian

I have decided that I want to learn another language. And I am going to help all my friends by posting some of what I am learning....

For now I want to learn some Italian phrases. I am also trying to learn Portuguese.

I tried French, but it seems difficult to me (and that is with a CD).

And to all my friends out there: If anybody has learning Italian/Portuguese CDs, let me know. Maybe I can burn it or you can e-mail me the lessons in MP3 form.

---

Blue font is for the polite form that is usually used when you don't know the person or to a person that you respect (teachers ….)

Sometimes the blue font is used for the feminine form, either way you will find the reason between parentheses.

English Phrases	Italian Phrases
Greetings:
Hi!	Ciao!
Good Morning!	Buongiorno!
Good Evening!	Buona sera!
Welcome! (to greet someone)	Benvenuto!/ Benvenuta! (female)
How Are You?	Come stai?/ Come state (polite)?
I'm Fine, Thanks!	Bene, grazie!
And You?	e tu? e lei? (polite)
Good/ So-So.	Bene/ così e così.
Thank You (Very Much)!	Grazie (molto)!
You're Welcome! (answering "thank you")	Prego!
Hey! Friend!	Ciao! Amico!
I Missed You So Much!	Mi sei mancato molto!
What's New?	che c'è di nuovo?
Nothing Much	Non molto
Good Night!	Buona notte!
See You Later!	A dopo
Good Bye!	Arrivederci!

 

I need to start drinking more

Hearty Drinkers Have Healthy Hearts

Less Heart Disease in Women Who Drink Most, Men Who Drink Daily

May 25, 2006 -- The more women drink -- and the more often men drink --
the healthier their hearts.

The new findings, based on the self-reported drinking habits of some
57,000 middle-aged Danes, confirm a previous report that the lower risk
of heart disease in men who drink alcohol depends more on how often they
drink than on how much they drink.

And for the first time, the study finds that alcohol's heart benefit for
women doesn't depend on how often they drink -- just on how much. Study
co-leader Janne Tolstrup, PhD, is a human biologist in the Center for
Alcohol Research at Denmark's National Institute for Public Health,
Copenhagen.

"For men who drink alcohol, the most healthy way they can do that is to
drink frequently, but only in small amounts," Tolstrup tells WebMD. "To
get the beneficial effect, you don't have to drink very much."

It's a different story for women.

"What we see with women is a beneficial effect on heart disease, but
this seems associated more with amount than with frequency," Tolstrup
says. "This is a different message than for men, because the women
drinking the most have the lowest risk of heart disease. It seems to be
independent of how often they drink."

Tolstrup and colleagues report the findings in the May 27 issue of the
British Medical Journal.

Uncorking Bottles and Heart Risk

The findings don't mean that immoderate drinking -- let alone binge
drinking or alcoholism -- is good for your overall health. Doctors won't
start telling teetotalers to be tosspots.

"What also should be remembered is, here we study heart disease and see
a beneficial effect for alcohol drinking," Tolstrup says. "But alcohol
has a lot of disadvantageous effects on other diseases, such as breast
cancer. There are other health outcomes where drinkers' risk will be
increased."

Moreover, the heart benefits of drinking apply only to middle-aged or
older people.

"If we had studied young people, we would not see this beneficial effect
of drinking -- just the detrimental effect," Tolstrup says. "This is
because people in their 20s and 30s are not at risk of heart disease
yet. So this drinking benefit is confined to postmenopausal women and
men over age 50."

That having been said, the heart benefit is real. Over nearly six years,
men who drank every day cut their risk of heart disease by 41%. Women
who drank at least once a week cut their risk of heart disease by 36% or
more.

Women who drank the most -- 14 or more drinks per week -- generally had
the lowest risk of heart disease: as much as a 73% decrease in risk. For
this study, a drink was defined as 12 grams of alcohol. A 12-ounce
bottle of beer, a 5-ounce glass of wine, or 1.5 ounces of 80-proof
distilled liquor has between 11 and 14 grams of alcohol.

Men who drank 21 drinks or more a week, and drank every day, had the
lowest risk of heart disease.

A Grain of Salt on Rim of Drinking Benefit

Annie Britton, PhD, worries that people will use the Tolstrup team's
findings to justify their dangerous drinking habits. An editorial by
Britton, a public health researcher at University College, London,
accompanies the Tolstrup study.

"We really need to interpret this with a great deal of caution," Britton
tells WebMD. "It's a good study. But people will hear you have to drink
every day, and young people will see this as an excuse to increase both
the frequency and volume of their drinking."

Britton points out that too many of us drink too much -- a problem that
is getting worse, not better. Many diseases, as well as driving deaths,
are directly linked to alcohol consumption.

"We need to consider the societal implications of drinking before we
encourage people to pour the next glass," she says.

And Britton worries that people who drink every day may become
alcohol-dependent without realizing it.

"I think you can drink every day and be moderate. A glass or two of your
favorite drink doesn't sound like risky behavior," she says. "But having
a few days free from alcohol seems healthy, just to make sure you are
not addicted -- even in a mild way. To make sure you're not using
alcohol as a crutch would certainly be a sensible thing to do."